Large institutional investors have more than twice as many women in senior investment positions than asset managers.
Women make up about 19% of senior investment roles at large institutional investors, compared to 7% at asset management companies, reports the Financial Times. Asset managers continue to hire more men based on “unproductive ideas about how women act,” including being less skilled, risk adverse, and more susceptible to stress, says Mimmi Kheddache-Jendeby, senior analyst at State Street’s Center for Applied Research.
State Street surveyed 864 investment professionals in 19 countries, and found that almost half of its staff in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are women, but less than a fifth of senior employees in those areas are female.
Institutional investors are looking for more diversity in their external managers, causing them to make diversity more of a priority in their own organizations, says Kheddache-Jendeby. Public pensions and endowments tend to have more flexible work schedules and tolerant cultures that appeal to women, says Karen Shackleton, an investment advisor and former portfolio manager.
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